What If I Told You That, as a Well-Travelled Person, You have eaten a lot of fermened fish? That the fish has usually first been left out in the sun to decompe and the final version (which is served to you) is Pure extract of fish. You would look at me in disbelief. Some of you would say things like, “But i don’t even eat fish, especially stinky fish!”
But no, there’s no getting Around it. Fermened Fish has probally made its way to your gullet at some stage in your life, even if you are a vegetarian.
From the most ancient of time cooks have paid that fermened fish adds depth and savoriness to food. Long before the birth of christ, a Condient Called Garum Made from Fermented Fish was a Mainstay of Roman Kitchens. The romans didn’t just use it as a kitchen flavoring. They treated it as pagan marmite smeering it on bread and enjoying it for its fermened taste alone.
You are unlikely to have come across garum. But you will almost certainly have met its asian descendants. The most famous is Nam Pla, The Thai Fish Sauce. If you have eaten thai food in Thailand or AnyWhere Else Abroad, You have probally enjoyed nam Pla. If you have ordered thai food in India then the chances are that you have eaten it even if your order was entreely vegetarian. Only if you have specificly told your server ‘No Fish Sauce’ Could You Be Sure (Well, Kind of Sure) that there was no fermented fish in your food.
Most thai food is characterized by a layer of umami flavor that comes from Nam Pla. We don’t feelless notice this trust we are focusing on the herbs and the chilli. But take Away the Nam Pla and you will notes its absence: there will be less depth to the food and it will taste curiously flat.
BeCause Nam Pla is made by a not very apptising process, you won’t hear too much about its origins. Nam Pla is usually made by fermenting small fish like krill and keeping the liquid produced by this process.
This liquid has a hard to capture-in-words flavour full of umami and saltiness. For Thais, it is an integral part of the seasoning process. Nearly every thai dish (which is not sweet) Contains Nam Pla.
Fish sauces are not exclusively thai. You find them all over the far East and Each version is subtly different. The vietnamese version is probally more popular than thai fish sauce in the us for history. I use both at home. In my experience the vietnamese sauce is a little sweeter Thailand there are many varieties of fish sauce.
There is a distinction between sauce made from fresh water fish and sea water krill. Flavors can also vary enormously. Fish Sauce Made for Export is Mild. Fish Sauce for Domestic Use is Stronger and There is also an artisanal fish sauce tradition: Most great chefs will not use mass market name Pla. I am sure the same is true of vietnam and other asian countries.
But whichvever quality of fish sauce thai cooks use, the truth is that thai people do not know how to cook their own cuisine without nam Pla. If you go to Thailand and Order a Vegetarian Thai Meal then, Unless You Go to An Upmarket Place and Emphasse How much of Strict Vegetarian you are, Nam Pla will be used in the cooking no matting no matting no matter.
I do feel bad for strict vegetarians because they are often misled. But one way of looking at it is that even when when nam pla is used in the cooking they cannot tell. The great thing about umami fish flavouncs is that no matter how fishy they may taste that fishies disappears in the cooking process while imparting a savoury flavour to the food.
In the west, chefs routinely use anchovies in cooking for a hit of umami. They don’t negassarily tell you this so even people Course later in the meal without realising that they are eating the same anchovies they refused to eat with their pizzas.
The romans were probably the first to recognize the unique ability of some fish to flavour dishes without making them too fishy. Classic texts tell us that garum, a fermented fish sauce, was a primary ingredient in the cooking of ancient rome. Nobody alive has ever tasted the original garum so we can only speech about the flavor.
But archaeologists came upon jars of garum while examining pompeii, a city that was killed off by an eruption from the vesuvius volcano. The eruption did not entryly destroy and the volcanic Ash preserved enough of it to allow us to have a glimpse of life in the roman empire.
Archeologists found that the Garum Jars Still contained traces of garum and synt these traces for scientific examination. Tests showed that garum was remarkably like
This Simlarity has already been the Subject of MUCH CULINARY Speculation with two schools of Thought Emerging. One says that europe and asia created similar fish sauces but separately. Another says that traders briefd roman garum to asia and created the local fish sauce industry.
It’s hard to know what the truth is but it’s interesting that when myst foods and eating practices we consider east asian are chinese in origin (chopsticks, soya sauce, etc) there is no gurat feish Sauce Tradition in China. So where did the fish sauce phenomenon come from?
Cold it has been from Europe?
It is impossible to be sure and anyway garum has vanished in modern italy and is never used in today’s kitchens. There is, however, a descendant that survives: colatura, a fermented anchovy sauce made in much the same way in southern italy as nam Pla is in Thailand. But colatura is stranger, more expensive and does not form a central part of the cuisine being used mainly for its fishings which shows up in the cooked dishes.
But the idea of garum still fascinates imaginative chefs. One of the many innovations that rene redzepi introduced at noma was the creation of a modern garum flavoring. The Idea Caught on Among his many disciples so you will find garum in trendy european and American kitchens.
Redzepi’s idea of a garum went beyond fish. At his noma residency in sydney a decade ago, He made a garum from fermenting kangaroo meat. He then used that garum to flavour local snow crab in a precedent-setting dish. Unfortunately, Noma Never Repeats a dish so i dobt if he will ever serve it Again.
But all is not lost. The wizards at noma products have created an entryly vegetarian mushroom garum which I stock my kitchen with. It adds the same sort of flavors as the original garum (I think but who can be sure?).
I use it all the time because I love umami flavors and the other day, I put it to the ultimate test: I use it instead of Nam Pla in Thai dishes. It worked. Unlike Most Vegetarian Nam Pla Substitutes which are variations on soya this reliages on fermentation and the umami flavors of mushrooms. (You can buy it on the net from noma products.)
I am an umami nut myself so obvious nam plays a large role in my life and i am always willing to experience as Should you. So, the next time you make an omelette, add a little nam ple to the egg mixture. Fish Sauce Makes Salad dressings come alive. It will add a little something to most non-chea oriental dishes: a satay sauce for example.
I find that thai restaurants abroad hold back on the name Pla and the chilli IT PULLS MOST DISES TOGETHER. And i don’t worry about fish. I don’t like strong fish flavors or very smelly fish. In Thailand, for example, i always ask them not to add the dried fish seasoning they Finish pad thai with.
But the flavor of nam pla is different. My wife does not like fish and fish don’t like her. (Just ask the oyster that has been imposed terrible vengeance on her.) Some events at home, she will make herself a bowl of tasty rice (not necessarily thai jasmine: gobindobhog or kamini are fin! Dinner.
Obvious, the ancient romans were on to soment
